


Two Pair

by inelegantly (Lir)



Series: SASO 2016 Fills [9]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project, ダイヤのA | Daiya no A | Ace of Diamond
Genre: Alternate Universe - Baseball, Crossover, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 17:06:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9667373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/pseuds/inelegantly
Summary: Having a girls' baseball team join the boy's league ought to be cause for a stir — or a scandal. But that isn't what Miyuki cares about. All he wants to know is whether Otonokizaka's battery will pose him any kind of a challenge, between their regal, ice-queen pitcher and her confidently-smiling catcher, or if he and Furuya will one-up them in the end.Or: the love live and daiya no ace fusion AU that has run away with the plot to Princess Nine.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written as a remix of [this art](http://i64.tinypic.com/25qaqyu.png) during the final bonus round of SASO 2016, and is one of the most self-indulgent things I've ever written. I really like the idea of Eli and Nozomi fitting the template of a battery, and I really enjoyed the character introspection that came from crossing over these two couples.

* * *

"Your team isn't so bad," Miyuki says, leaning over the fence looped around the practice field. There's an easy grin settled across his lips, the sort that says he's not so much offering a compliment as making a joke, testing the waters in talking to a catcher he doesn't know.

The girl standing across from Miyuki is nearly a head shorter than him, but when she smiles — slow, secretive, but with the sort of warmth that builds to glowing — it's every bit the equal to his own challenging grin. On that alone, Miyuki decides that maybe he's going to like her. 

"We have had some practice," she says. "Although the baseball team _is_ a new addition to our school." 

"Oh," Miyuki says, as if he's just acknowledging fact, as if it isn't something amazing that a girls' school has entered itself into the so-called _boys league._

He takes for granted that baseball is a sport for men, because he's in his third year of his high school baseball career and young men are who he faces off against, crouched behind home plate as his pitchers stare the batter down. It's not that someone like this catcher, long, heavy pigtails hanging down her back and a smile on her lips, looking sturdy in the clean white of her uniform, cannot be a challenge. She's simply the first of her kind who's come to challenge Miyuki toe-to-toe. 

"So are you the ones playing us this afternoon?" she asks. "In our practice game?" 

"Guess we are," Miyuki says. "Are you going to give us a tough time." 

"I don't know," she says, glancing back over her shoulder. 

There's a blonde girl standing just outside the bullpen, stretching with studious concentration and letting Miyuki know at a glance, _she's warming up to pitch._ He immediately wonders what her best pitch is, about her velocity, about whether she's difficult to work with, or easily takes to her catcher's signs. 

Her catcher glances back at Miyuki, catching him staring. He shrugs, entirely unrepentant. She smiles at him in a way that's much more clearly a challenge. "That depends on Elicchi. But I like to think we'll give you a good run for your money. I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone." 

Miyuki laughs, head tipping back as he chuckles over the mere thought. He doesn't think he'll be disappointed. They're an interesting pair, the careful, limber pitcher with her sharp blue eyes, and her easily-smiling catcher who clearly isn't giving the all of the picture away. Miyuki is happy to face them on the field. 

"So what's your name?" he asks. "So I know who I'm up against?" 

She smiles again, and shrugs, holding two fingers up like she's plucking something between them. "If it's in the cards that we beat you, are you going to remember it?" 

"I never forget a catcher who gets the better of me," Miyuki says.

"In that case," she replies. "It's Nozomi. Toujou Nozomi." 

"Miyuki," he returns. "Lets have a good game." 

She grins that challenging grin of hers again, all white teeth and crinkling about the eyes, her pretty face tanned by the summer sun. Miyuki can't help but smile back, met with such a grin. "Yes," she says. "Let's do exactly that."

* * *

In some ways, Eli doesn't have the personality one would expect of a pitcher. She has the fortitude for it, and the determination, and she has a hell of an arm when she's pitching. She has the commanding attitude needed of the ace, able to rally her team around her and perform her part in their defense. But sometimes she seems too calm, too calculated, too set on making her own calls even when she knows her catcher is giving her signs.

(That's why she has Nozomi to work with, Nozomi who can read her like a book and who always meets her halfway, who understands when Eli can't stop herself from digging in her heels and shaking off direction.) 

Eli is the sort of person who always wants to be aware of whatever situation is unfolding around her, who cares about the big picture and thinks on a macro scale first. As a pitcher, she knows she always needs to warm up, knows that it's part of the game to throw with Nozomi in the bullpen before the first inning starts, knows that downtime is a myth and that _any_ time can always be better used with a little cleverness. 

As a person, she can never resist sizing up the other team. 

There's a lot of pressure on her, as the ace and captain of the first girls' team in their league. She and Nozomi have spent long nights studying the competition, watching game videos and researching their players, planning ahead for the sorts of fights they'll get into. They've researched Seidou, and Eli likes to think she knows what to expect. 

But on the day of the game, standing across the field from the away-team dugout and watching the other players prepare to face them in a game, all of that research goes from hypotheticals to harsh reality. Eli is used to it, to the intensity of playing always looming broader and brighter than what she imagines when she's looking at stats and studying recordings. She isn't quite used to sizing up the other pitchers, to knowing she shouldn't but finding herself unable to _not_ ruthlessly compare, her stats against theirs, her merits against theirs. 

Seidou's current ace is tall and lean, whispered to be a monster and renowned for his fastballs that rival the abilities of the pros. Eli watches him from across the field, standing sentinel beside the dugout and staring off as if in a trance. Even from a distance, she can tell that his eyes are unfocused. 

Until they sharpen down, and what he's staring at is _her._

She can feel the pressure of his resolve from clear across the field, weighing upon her like a physical force, threatening her with his unwillingness to back down. But Eli is stubborn herself, and she has a whole team depending on her to play her part. She stares him down right back, before allowing herself to smile. 

They're going to have a good game, Otonokizaka and Seidou, Eli will make sure of it.

* * *

"Did you paint them?" Nozomi asks, gesturing at Furuya's hands after she's clasped them for a shake.

They're standing on the field, arranged in their lines to thank each other for the game. Though the match is over and Nozomi _should_ be crushed with the reality of defeat, she's never been one to allow adversity to grind her down. It was only a practice game, after all. Practice is something her team can never get enough of, new as they are to playing in their league. Nozomi will treasure each defeat for the things that it teaches her. 

"Oh," Furuya says, glancing down at his fingers. For a moment his stare is blank and vacant, taking in the white of his nails like he's never seen them before. Then he smiles, a slow spread across his lips that catches and lights behind his eyes. "No. Miyuki-senpai did them." 

The rest of their lines are breaking up, splitting away back to their sides of the field to wind down from the game and get their things back together. Furuya stays where he is, with Nozomi talking to him. So Nozomi stays with him. 

"Can I see?" she asks. 

He extends his hands, offering no argument. 

She takes one, letting his palm settle across her palm and allowing his fingers to spread before her appraising gaze, admiring the attention to detail with his nails. At a glance, they're subtle, the white of the paint only slightly standing out from the pale of his hands. Upon further examination, Nozomi can make out the silver stars etched into the paint, the tiny dots of sparkling glitter hovering at the stars' corners. 

"They're very nice," she says, a fond smile of her own spreading across her lips. "Your senpai must have very careful hands." 

"He does," Furuya agrees, nodding decisively. "Miyuki-senpai is a very good catcher, and is very good with his hands. He says I need to take better care of mine." 

"They look well cared for to me," Nozomi says. 

Furuya beams at her, face lighting up at the comment. "Miyuki-senpai says I'm doing better." 

Nozomi likes him, this young, earnest pitcher who cares so much for the catcher he works with, whose trust in his partner is clear enough that even she can get a read on it. They've played a game now, so she's met Miyuki, has gone to bat against Furuya's fastball and been forced back by his breaking balls, been forced to consider how she can do better as a clean-up hitter for her team. 

"Your hands are very important," Nozomi says, thinking of Eli's long, graceful fingers, of the French-tips she used to wear when she got manicures with her grandmother, before she started clipping her nails round and short for baseball. "Maybe the most important thing, even." 

"That's what Miyuki-senpai said once," Furuya says. "A pitcher's hands are his weapons." 

Nozomi likes Miyuki, too, from what she's seen of him. He's smoke and mirrors, wearing a bright grin like a disguise and wielding jokes like weapons, making himself fit only as much as he has to. That's something Nozomi is familiar with, something she can recognize at a glance as easily as her eyes caught the gleam of sunlight off Furuya's carefully-painted nails. 

"So whose idea was it?" she asks, letting go of Furuya's hand but gesturing at what she's parted with. "The stars, I mean?" 

Furuya glances away. His expression is serious once more, the closed, focused one he wears when he's standing on the mound or stepping up to the plate. But something flickers across it, an almost-smile as if he's experiencing a memory. He tells her, "It was mine." 

Nozomi smiles. "I've always loved the stars, Furuya-kun. I would say you have very good taste."

* * *

They would make a pretty good battery, Miyuki thinks, as he watches Eli pack her gear away after the game.

After all, the most attractive pitchers are the difficult ones, and though Eli's control is admirable and her speed is nothing to turn a nose up at, she is unmistakably headstrong, unflinchingly proud. Miyuki has watched the way her catcher handles her, with a delicate touch and easy smiles, banking on their familiarity to ensure that they're on the same page. They've forged a connection, and it's that connection Eli listens to, not the signs. 

Miyuki can't help but wonder whether she'd take signs from him, if they were partnered together in some far-off game. Tanba didn't take his direction well at first, either, but he came around. Miyuki never can say no to a challenge. 

The Seidou bus is waiting in the parking lot, idling as their players gather their things, loiter after the game. They aren't in the hugest hurry to get home but after bathroom breaks are made and their gear is stowed away, they will all be expected to pile back on the bus to depart. Miyuki knows this; it's the same routine they use for every practice game, never mind that this one was against the league's first all-female team. 

Miyuki makes his way across the field anyway, discarding the chance to take a piss, to talk to friends. 

"Ayase," he says, catching her attention. "Do you have a minute?" 

She stares back at him, sharp, ice-blue eyes narrowing with suspicion — or maybe just appraisal, sizing up the situation she's suddenly found herself in. Miyuki grins back at her, easy, unassuming. This is just a chat between friendly rivals, the sort who fight on the field but sport no animosity once it comes to the end of the game. 

"Miyuki," Eli says, slowly, like she's only just remembering the name. "I saw you speaking to Nozomi earlier. Did you have something to ask me?" 

That makes it easy, and Miyuki grins wider, laughs. "Yeah, something like that. I wanted you to catch with me." 

He nods his head toward the bullpen, empty now that the game is over and another game not scheduled for the late, lengthening hours of the afternoon, orange light slanting its way across the field. Eli looks where he's indicating, and her lips purse, expression shifting into more of a frown. 

"Why would I want to catch with you?" she asks. 

"Because it'll be interesting," Miyuki replies immediately, no hesitation at all. "You've never played with guys, right? Not on your same team, playing _against_ other teams doesn't count. Catch with me." 

He's still grinning, and nodding, trying to make the offer seem inviting. 

The reality of the matter is, he's never played with a girl, not as a pitcher, not on his same team. He played with whoever joined the youth league when he was younger, with his teammates in middle school, with everyone at Seidou now that he's in high school. He'll go pro, if he's able, and play with a new batch of guys there too. 

He's never doubted that a girl could be a good pitcher. He's just never _met_ one, and now that he has the opportunity to catch for her is one he doesn't want to let slip through his fingers. 

She stares at him, gaze even and heavy. He can feel the weight of her appraisal, not unlike the one he gives to his pitchers, or the stare Chris used to level him with sometimes, the understanding one from one catcher to another. That thought is the most interesting of all — Eli is a very attractive pitcher, for her resemblance to Miyuki and Chris' way of thinking as well as for her stubbornness, and skill, and pride. 

"Alright," she finally says. "Let's do this." 

Miyuki leads the way over to the bullpen, grinning near hard enough to split his face.

* * *


End file.
